Kansas health officials have designated a Nemaha County hospital as a Level-IV trauma center. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced the change Wednesday for Sabetha Community Hospital in Sabetha.

The facility, along with Mitchell County Hospital Health Systems in Beloit, are the first hospitals in Kansas to receive Level IV trauma center designation. KDHE was given legislative authority earlier this year to begin designating Level IV trauma centers.

Dr. James Longabaugh is the Emergency Medical Director at Sabetha, and sits on Kansas’ Advisory Committee on Trauma. Longabaugh says he’s delighted all their hard work over the last year have paid off, but he was quick to point out his hope that all community hospitals in Kansas achieve the designation.

“I think there are going to be quite a few small hospitals across Kansas that will achieve this designation,” Longabaugh said. “Hopefully all 84 critical access hospitals in Kansas will, that’s going to be our goal, is to try to get everybody included in this.”

“It will help severely injured Kansans do better overall.”

State trauma designation is a voluntary process that provides confirmation that a hospital has demonstrated its commitment to providing the highest quality trauma care for all injured patients. To earn designation, the hospital must have the necessary equipment and resources needed for trauma care.

“Trauma center designation is one component of a comprehensive statewide trauma system designed to get patients with life-threatening injuries to a hospital with the necessary resources,” said Robert Moser, M.D., KDHE Secretary and State Health Officer. “It means these hospitals have met essential criteria that ensure institutional performance and trauma care capability.”

The criteria for designation were established by the American College of Surgeons and endorsed by the State’s Advisory Committee on Trauma.

Over the last year, Longabaugh says doctors and nurses have taken special courses in trauma responses. They’ve also upgraded some equipment in the facility. He says a lot of attention has been paid to the hospital’s performance improvement activities, now geared for the emergency department toward improving trauma outcomes.

There are four separate categories of designation (Level I, II, III & IV) that are awarded by KDHE. Each category has specific criteria that must be met by a facility seeking that level of designation. Level IV trauma centers are community hospitals that provide urgent care for those who are seriously injured and have relationships with other trauma centers if a higher level of care is needed. Sabetha Community Hospital has such a relationship with Stormont Vail HealthCare in Topeka, and the University of Kansas Health Center in Kansas City.

“A trauma center designation recognizes the hospital’s dedication to providing optimal care for those who have been injured in their community. Designated Level IV trauma centers are a vital resource to rural communities when every second matters,” said Moser.

For the second year in a row, a student from St Joseph took first in the Block Kids Building Program.

Parkway Elementary sixth grader, Shawn Boss, took the first place top honor in the event that uses LEGO blocks and a little creativity. 

The program by the National Association of Women in Construction holds the annual contest nation-wide. Boss was announced the winner over the weekend.  

“I’m in awe still, it’s pretty great, ” Boss said.  “I was shocked when we got the phone call.”

The contestants were given Lego blocks, a piece of foil, a piece of string and a rock.  Boss designed an oil filtering station with a boat and a watch tower.  He says he got the idea from the recent BP oil spill.

Boss received an iPad for his first place finish.

Last year, Augustus May of Edison Elementary in St Joseph won the first place top honor in the same competition.  

 

 

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Sen. Claire McCaskill has extra security in place following a comment at a Tea Party rally last week.

St. Louis area activist Scott Boston told a Tea Party gathering in Springfield, Mo., on Thursday, “We have to get Claire McCaskill out.”

“We have to kill the Claire Bear ladies and gentlemen.”

That comment was enough to prompt the U.S. Capitol Police to seek extra protection for McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who is up for re-election in November. Meanwhile, police in the St. Louis suburb of Kirkwood, where McCaskill lives, say they were asked by the Capitol security agency to step up patrols around her house.

Boston says he did not intend the comment as a threat.

Prosecutors are asking to add a second misdemeanor charge against Bishop Robert Finn and the Catholic Diocese of Kansas City – St Joseph.

Prosecutors at the Jackson County Prosecutors office announced this week that the office had filed a motion to a charge of failure to report suspicious child abuse.

The bishop and diocese already face one count of that charge over the way they managed the Rev. Shawn Ratigan, who is facing child pornography charges.

Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker said in a news release that the original charge covered events from December 2010 to May 2011. The new charge splits that span into two separate time frames. Baker says that is the best approach going into the trial.

Both Finn and the diocese have denied any wrongdoing.

 

BETHANY, Mo. (AP) — A northwest Missouri man whose son was found dead in their burned-out mobile home will not face the death penalty if he is convicted of killing the boy.

The Harrison County prosecutor said Monday that he won’t seek the death penalty against 28-year-old Tony R. King of Bethany.

King is charged with murder, arson and child abuse in the death of his 7-year-old son, Jeremiah Lamm. The boy’s body was found in the bedroom of the family’s burned mobile home on Jan. 11.

Buchanan County Circuit Court Judge Randall Jackson, who had been appointed to hear the case, agreed Monday to move the trial to St Joseph. The trial is scheduled to begin March 25.